The Happiest Valentine's Day

Last night, Lily slept almost all night long. There was one very
frantic moment that I have to tell you about. She slept in my arms,
and I was so tired that after I had changed her and she was a little
restless, I fell asleep with her in my arms in my clothes. At about
midnight Seth began to cry and I woke up to comfort him. I sat up.
Lily was gone. I leapt out of bed and dug through the covers loooking
for her purple-jammie clad body, but she wasn't there. I called out to
Rob and turned on the light. I dug through his blanket and she wasn't
there either. I looked in the closet, in the bathroom, under the bed.
No Lily. I ran to the door and I had forgotten to lock the chain so
that the door can't be opened from the inside. She wasn't in the hall.
I was beside myself. Where could she be? She's very dexterious, and
I'm sure she can work nearly every door handle. She's watched us push
the elevator buttons, and she loves to imitate us, so she could have
easily opened the doors. Without thinking of anything else, I rode
down the elevator to the foyer praying that someone had found her. But
when I got down there everyone looked calm and normal. I rushed to the
desk and explained that my 2 year old little girl was missing from my
room, that she must have walked out. There was quite a bit of
confusion as they were processing my English, and I had to repeat
myself 4 times. They called security, and I didn't know what to do, so
I rushed back up to the 11th floor, trying to keep from crying. I
opened the door and Rob met me there. "I found her," he said.

She had in the night slid off the bed and rolled under the bed and
somehow managed to tuck herself behind my backpack, which was beside
the bed. She was sound asleep. This girl sleeps like a rock. So then I
had to go back to tell the security (who had made it up to our floor
at just that time) and another couple who had overheard me at the
front desk and were helping to look for her, that we had found her. I
was so embarrassed. She had not even been in our care for 24 hours and
we managed to lose her! Yikes.


See her in the corner, behind my backpack? In a little purple ball?


Today went so well. She LOVES her daddy. She is quite playful and
active. We returned to the Civil Affairs Office today to make
everything official. It was there that her personality really began to
shine through and she just blossomed. She began laughing and playing
with Rob, teasing him, even tickling him. She loves to get him to
react. She unzips her zipper, and calls to him, laughing, for him to
zip her back up. She asks for a toy and then throws it, laughing,
wanting him to pick it up. I took her to the playroom in the civil
affairs office, and we played ball for a while (which she loved.)
Then--insert sound of angels singing--she ran to me with her arms
open, a big smile on her face and gave me a hug!!!! It is so obvious
that this little girl has been loved and very well cared for.

Tonight, however, she became a little solemn with me, and then she
didn't want to have anything to do with me, only Rob. She fussed a
little when I tried to go to her; she wanted Rob. That's okay. She's
going through so much and she's being so brave. She's trying to figure
out our relationship with her. I'm not taking it personally at all.
Like most moms, I've shown her lots of nurturing and cuddling and
loving, and like most dads, Rob has shown lots of playfulness. I know
that playfulness is safer than more intimate gestures of love, so she
is responding much faster to that. Of course, Rob cuddles and loves on
her and I play with her, but she already knows that daddy is the
playful one.

Communication has been amazingly easy. She is used to, I think, not
being understood because of her cleft, and so she speaks fluently with
tones of voice and gestures. I can tell already by her tone of voice
when she is tattling on Seth!

Seth is still sick. He is not eating well at all, and his fever pops
in and out. Also, his cough has gotten worse. I'm a little worried. We
decided that if his fever comes back tomorrow we're going to start him
on some Zithromax that I brought from home. Please pray for him.


Feeling so blessed,
Jody